The new James Cameron film Avatar is by all accounts a masterpiece of special effects. But it seems to follow the Jurassic Park Rule of Modern Filmmaking: the more spectacular a film's high-tech special effects, the more it has to have an anti-technology theme.
From what I gather, the film is about an attempt by an evil US corporation to destroy an extraterrestrial ecological paradise; the extraterrestrial fighters win, and we evil humans are defeated and sent back to our own "dying planet." Serves us right.
One conservative commentary on the film describes it as the left's Atlas Shrugged, but I think that's way too big a compliment for Avatar. The left's agenda is so ill-thought-out and unappealing that it could never hope to produce a story one-tenth as good as Atlas. In the case of Avatar, the plot seems to have been cribbed from Disney's Pocahontas or maybe from that Star Wars film with the Ewoks.
This is an illustration of another Hollywood rule, the Cameron Equation: the amount of money James Cameron pours into a film's visual effects is inversely proportionate to the amount of thought and originality he puts into the plot.
But the biggest story here is about the left's fascination with fantasies about the destruction of their own civilization. One conservative blogger gets it right when he describes Avatar as "a suicide fantasy, the Hollywood blockbuster equivalent of a troubled teenager's notebook sketches, scribbled by someone who hates himself only marginally less than he hates the rest of the world."
That turns out to be more literally true than you might have guessed. The article below—which I thought must be parody when I first saw it—describes a wave of depression and suicidal thoughts among young fans of Avatar. It then goes through contortions to describe this reaction as normal and to avoid identifying its clear underlying cause: under the influence of the environmentalist movement, young people have been taught that they have no future on a doomed planet and that they should feel guilty even for existing.
In short, environmentalism is revealing itself as a civilizational suicide cult.
"Audience Experiences 'Avatar' Blues," Jo Piazza, CNN, January 11
James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.
On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope….
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and that everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality….
"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed...gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so...meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep...doing things at all. I live in a dying world."
From what I gather, the film is about an attempt by an evil US corporation to destroy an extraterrestrial ecological paradise; the extraterrestrial fighters win, and we evil humans are defeated and sent back to our own "dying planet." Serves us right.
One conservative commentary on the film describes it as the left's Atlas Shrugged, but I think that's way too big a compliment for Avatar. The left's agenda is so ill-thought-out and unappealing that it could never hope to produce a story one-tenth as good as Atlas. In the case of Avatar, the plot seems to have been cribbed from Disney's Pocahontas or maybe from that Star Wars film with the Ewoks.
This is an illustration of another Hollywood rule, the Cameron Equation: the amount of money James Cameron pours into a film's visual effects is inversely proportionate to the amount of thought and originality he puts into the plot.
But the biggest story here is about the left's fascination with fantasies about the destruction of their own civilization. One conservative blogger gets it right when he describes Avatar as "a suicide fantasy, the Hollywood blockbuster equivalent of a troubled teenager's notebook sketches, scribbled by someone who hates himself only marginally less than he hates the rest of the world."
That turns out to be more literally true than you might have guessed. The article below—which I thought must be parody when I first saw it—describes a wave of depression and suicidal thoughts among young fans of Avatar. It then goes through contortions to describe this reaction as normal and to avoid identifying its clear underlying cause: under the influence of the environmentalist movement, young people have been taught that they have no future on a doomed planet and that they should feel guilty even for existing.
In short, environmentalism is revealing itself as a civilizational suicide cult.
"Audience Experiences 'Avatar' Blues," Jo Piazza, CNN, January 11
James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.
On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope….
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and that everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality….
"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed...gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so...meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep...doing things at all. I live in a dying world."
1 comments:
Rather interesting blog you've got here. Thanks for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more soon.
Sincerely yours
Alice Tudes
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